


Day 1: Rubble

by GemmaRose



Series: Lost Light Fest 2019 [1]
Category: Transformers (IDW 2019)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Rubble Lives, Comfort, Established Relationship, Hospitals, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-01
Updated: 2019-10-01
Packaged: 2020-11-09 00:04:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,371
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20844263
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GemmaRose/pseuds/GemmaRose
Summary: Starscream has missed a lot, out in space with Sentinel Prime. Including a murder and an attempted murder. Before he deals with any of that though, he'd like to reunite with the mech he missed most of all.





	Day 1: Rubble

Starscream stretched as he stood from his desk, absently checking his chronometer. Last time Bee had managed to send a message, he’d mentioned finally getting assigned as a mentor. If Starscream knew the mech, he’d be sending his freshforged shadow home right about now and heading back to his own hab. A hab which Starscream could probably reach faster, if he flew. It was no secret that he was back, but Bee probably wouldn’t be expecting him over so soon. As if filling out datapads would really hold his attention when it’d been so long since he was home.

He switched his office status to Unavailable, tucked a few of the more important looking datapads in his subspace to work on when he inevitably onlined at stupid o’clock tomorrow morning from Bee recharging on one of his wings, and kliks later was out over the city. Air traffic was light in this part of town, and Starscream bit back a whoop as he flipped into a 720° roll. Sure he got flight time when he was offworld to stave off groundsickness, but it was no _fun_ flying in the void and the last time he flew in an alien atmosphere he had to spend a whole joor getting decontaminated. No more of that though, not until things settled down and another long-term xenorelations mission was approved.

He pulled up into a lazy loop and came down twisting to land on his pedes on top of Bee’s building. The rooftop door lock was still broken, he noted with a chuckle, and the walk down to Bee’s hab door was short. The code was the same as it had been when he left, even though he was sure he’d reminded Bee to change it in one of his reply messages, and Starscream rolled his optics as he let himself in. Really, would he have to change the fool’s locks himself? Then again, it wasn’t like Bee had much in the way of possessions to steal. A battered couch, a holoscreen on the wall five models old, a small energon dispenser. Actually, the dispenser looked newer than he remembered. The old thing must’ve finally given out. Oh well, the new one’s controls were still the same. He helped himself to a quarter cube, added enough gallium Bee would’ve called him ridiculous, and sat down on the couch to watch the news until the yellow mech came home.

\---

It was nearly the next cycle when Starscream’s patience finally wore out. He shut off the holoscreen and strode out into the hall, locking the door behind himself before taking the elevator down to the main floor to see the reception drone. The reception drone which, with a bit of light hacking, showed Bee hadn’t been here in almost a decacycle. Starscream frowned, force-rebooting the reception drone to erase all marks he’d been in it as he contemplated what could be going on. Someone had mentioned a young mech ending up in the hospital from an attack, and most mentors did know each other. Perhaps Bee was keeping a friend company?

It wasn’t like the hospital was that far out of his way home, regardless.

Starscream landed in front of its doors not half a joor later, and a flash of his credentials got him in to see the comatose newbuild without any annoying questions. The room was tucked away in a corner as far from the surgical suites as a mech could get, its window looking out into the courtyard garden. The newbuild, Primus he didn’t even have an alt-mode yet, was a dull dark blue on the mediberth, cables and wires plugged into his frame. More notable though was the yellow frame slumped against the side of said mediberth, familiar as anything and truly a sight for overworked optics. Starscream slipped inside as silently as he could, keeping his field furled close.

“Not much to look at, is he?” he said drily, and in a nano-klik Bee was on his pedes, armour flared in a frankly adorable threat display, hand flying to where he’d kept his weapon when he’d still worked for Starscream. It was charming, almost flattering, seeing that Bee was not only still sharp enough to go for his gun when startled but also that he was quiet enough _to_ startle him.

“Star.” his vocalier rasped uncomfortably over his nickname for Sarscream, shoulder slumping and field flooding with _relief affection trust_ for a moment before he pulled himself together and crossed his arms. “That wasn’t very nice.”

“This is the freshforged mech from the attack?” Starscream asked, and Bee’s shoulders slumped again, doorwings drooping as he turned to face the monoformer on the berth.

“Yeah. Some mentor I turned out to be.”

Oh.

“It wasn’t your fault.” Starscream said softly, moving over to slide an arm around Bee’s waist. “And being a mentor doesn’t mean protecting your charge, just guiding them.”

Bee leaned against him, but even after so long apart Starscream couldn’t properly enjoy it. Part of him wanted to assign himself as the Intelligence aid for this investigation, infeasible workload be damned. Bumblebee was hurting over this, and to stand by and do nothing felt wrong for reasons he decidedly did not want to examine.

“I wanted to introduce the two of you, when you got back.” Bee said at length, and Starscream ran his hand over yellow plating which probably hadn’t seen solvent since Rubble wound up in here. “You’ll like him, I’m sure.” Bee smiled up at him, but it was a tense, thin thing that made Starscream’s spark ache in his chassis. “He’s clever and curious, and-” Starscream hummed, settling his engines into a low thrum that never failed to relax Bee as he set a few background processes running to churn through the data he’d gone over earlier. One upside to not knowing exactly what he and Bee were was that nobody else knew either, so he didn’t have to deal with any kind of forms for taking on a case so closely linked to someone he was involved with.

Bee abruptly stopped talking, his doorwings shooting straight up out from his back, and Starscream startled slightly as his optics flicked around the room. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, except for the shifting display on the monitors wired into Rubble’s systems. Oh, monitors going crazy, that was probably not good. A medic shoved past him, and he drew Bumblebee over to the edge of the room as more swarmed in to fuss over Rubble.

“Is he okay?” Bee asked as the last of the medics turned towards the door, and the greenish mech flashed a bright smile.

“He will be. The doctor will be in shortly to answer any questions the three of you may have.”

Bee’s armour loosened from where he’d had it clamped tight to his plating, and Starscream rubbed between the hinges of his doorwings. “Perhaps once he’s recovered I can let him shadow me for a cycle or two.” he suggested, and Bee chuckled.

“He’d hate your job.”

“No way to know without letting him see it, now is there?” Starscream rebutted, and smiled when Bee leaned against him.

“Thank you.”

“For what?”

“Being here.”

Starscream smiled and moved his arm to wrap around Bee’s waist, pulling him closer and nuzzling the side of his helm.

“Am I getting another mentor?” a hoarse voice asked, and Starscream startled.

“Rubble, you’re awake!” Bee exclaimed, pulling away from Starscream and rushing over to sit on the edge of the mediberth. “How do you feel?”

“My processor hurts.” Rubble grimaced, and Starscream bit back a smile. “Is he my new mentor?” Rubble inclined his head towards Starscream, and this time he couldn’t suppress a snort.

“Primus, no. I’m far too busy to be a mentor.”

“Oh.” Rubble relaxed a little more into the berth as Bee fussed over him. “I thought you might be like Greenlight.”

Bee made a strangled sound in his vocaliser, and Starscream chuckled. “I’m far more important than Greenlight, I assure you.”

“_Star_.”

“What? I am.” Starscream grinned. Bumblebee facepalmed. With Rubble awake and hopefully soon able to answer questions about the attack, life was certainly about to get very interesting.

**Author's Note:**

> Rubble ends up shadowing Starscream for a day and decides he does NOT want to do that. Starscream knew he wouldn’t but it was fun to watch him squirm, and having him close all day let Bee not worry about him for a bit.


End file.
